A parks employee checks for seawall damage after putting pylons around a sink hole in front of the Stanley Park pool seawall walkway. Wild waves closed off parts of the Stanley Park seawall walkway at Third Beach.Kim Stallknecht
/ PNG

METRO VANCOUVER - The combination of a king tide and a surging storm that pummelled parts of Vancouver’s iconic seawall Monday are symptomatic of what climate change and rising sea levels could mean for the region, according to an expert.

Oceanographer Susan Allen said that in coming years, the flooding seen in parts of Metro Vancouver’s waterfront could occur outside a “coincidence” like Monday’s heavy wind and rain that combined with the so-called king tides, which are nearing the end of their month-long peak in British Columbia.

“In the future we won’t have to have quite so high a tide at the time of a storm surge to get exactly what we had today because the water will be a little higher,” Allen said. “The important thing is “and.”

“If you get global warming and a big tide and a storm surge then we (have) problems.”

King tides, also known as a perigean spring tide, are formed twice a year when the gravitational pull of the sun and moon reinforce each other. Usual water levels at high tide are 3.4 metres to 4.3 metres in the Vancouver area, but a king tide can reach five metres, as it did (almost 5.5 m) at 9 a.m. Monday. A significantly lower high tide will occur Tuesday and continue to decrease this week, according to Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

Logs and debris smashed into Stanley Park’s seawall Monday, causing significant damage to the pathway from Second Beach to the Siwash Rock. The seawall was closed from Second Beach to Lions Gate Bridge as waves ricocheted over its path onto the cliff face, putting cyclists, runners and those walking at risk, said park board spokesman Jason Watson. Most of the beaches were submerged in water. Gates were placed along the path and city staff were present to direct anyone away from the area.

According to B.C. government estimates, ocean levels could rise up to 80 cm at Nanaimo and up to 120 cm in the Fraser Delta by 2100, due to climate change.

That is why the City of Vancouver is developing a climate change adaptation strategy and a strategic plan for coastal flood and erosion risk in the face of increasing sea levels, water and sewers director Brian Crowe told The Sun last month.

The Vancouver park board is waiting for the weather to calm down before it reassesses the damage to its popular seaside path Tuesday.

Across English Bay at Kitsilano Beach, waves crashed over the seawall and into the longest outdoor public pool in North America. The pool itself, closed for winter, is filled with saltwater and doesn’t appear to be damaged after an initial assessment, Watson said.

Waves also pummeled Jericho Beach and damaged its pier, which is closed while the park board assesses repairs.

“We’re going to have to adapt because we’re not doing anything to change global warming,” said Allen, who saw some of the devastation firsthand as she cycled past a flooded Spanish Banks beach on her way to her teaching job at the University of B.C.

Metro Vancouver is relatively buffeted from major storms and better situated to ward off the perils of climate change than many cities, such as New York, she added.

In West Vancouver, the seawall from Ambleside to Dundarave was shut down around 9 a.m., including the parks and piers in between as a precaution until the tides receded.

Debris — not wind and waves — was a major concern for Aquabus owner and operator Jeff Pratt, who continued running his water-taxi service in False Creek and elsewhere. He said it wasn’t busy but one tourist insisted on taking a “mini-cruise” around Yaletown.

“One thing that’s definitely going to be a problem for all mariners, is we noticed a lot of the logs were coming off the beach at Kits Beach and Jericho,” he said. “And a lot of junk ... flotsam and jetsam.”

It’s unknown how many logs, a mainstay of Vancouver’s public beaches, were carried into the water by the high tides and powerful surf, Watson said. Crews will reassess the state of the seawall and city beaches Tuesday, he added.

Delta was bracing for flooding on Monday, but the risk was downgraded with a change in wind direction. High winds and extreme high tide had caused city administrators in Delta to sandbag some areas along Boundary Bay, and waterfront areas of Tsawwassen First Nation were also in danger of flooding.

Only a few small areas around Ladner Harbour experienced minor flooding and the emergency operations centres closed.

Further inland, wet snow fell on parts of southwestern B.C. throughout Sunday evening and Monday morning, and weather and speed are considered to be contributing factors in the crash that killed Luis Ronald Calderon Sanchez and his dog on Sunday in a single-vehicle crash on Highway 91 in North Delta.

Sanchez’s Toyota Corolla was travelling southbound when he apparently lost control of the vehicle at the Nordel Way off-ramp, according to the RCMP.

Around 6 p.m. Sunday, an eight-year-old girl was struck by a car in Surrey while crossing the intersection at 140th Street and 74th Avenue. She was taken to Royal Columbian Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and is expected to recover.

“The driver didn’t see that she was in the crosswalk,” RCMP Sgt. Bob Pinkewycz told The Vancouver Sun.

“That particular intersection is poorly lit, there isn’t much artificial lighting and of course at the time there was a mixture of snow and rain making it difficult to see.”

Further inland, a Greyhound bus carrying 42 passengers rolled over on the Coquihalla Highway near Merritt early Monday morning, bus company spokesman Timothy Stokes confirmed. The bus was travelling from Vancouver to Prince George. There were no reports of serious injuries and the official cause of the crash was not immediately known, but one B.C. paramedic described attending the crash site in “waist-deep snow.”

Rain was forecast to return to the Lower Mainland today, but another storm surge could make for an ugly mix of rain and snow at higher elevations Wednesday morning, according to meteorologist Mark Madryga.

Metro Vancouver’s snowboarders, skiers and snowshoers can rejoice, however: another 30 cm of snow could hit the North Shore mountains and Whistler over the next few days, Madryga said.

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